Sufi Wisdom

I never saw anyone as just as the world.
As long as you pursue the world it will pursue you,
but when you turn away from it and seek God,
it will leave you alone..
and its glamour shall no longer fascinate you.

-Al-Hujwiri, "The Kashf al-Mahjub"


***

Down a flowing stream

A barque borne fast

To the mind it may seem

The rushes hurry past

Every moment thus

From this world we fly,

And it seemeth to us

The world goes by..


-The Ruba'iyyat - Translation by: A.J. Arberry

***

We are the treasury

Of God's great mystery;

The sea wherein doth dwell

His pearl incalculable.

From end to farthest end

Of being we extend,

Yea, we sit upon

God's imperial throne.

-The Ruba'iyyat

***

The heart is a secret garden

Its trees unseen;

A hundred hues it blossoms

Unchanged, serene.

The heart's a boundless ocean

Illimitable;

Its waves break unnumbered

In every soul.

-The Ruba'iyyat

***

Of the book of God

Thou art a copying,

A mirror wherein showed

The beauty of the King.

All God ever wrought

Dwelleth not apart;

All thou hast ever sought,

Find it in thy heart.

-The Ruba'iyyat